All posts tagged ‘engineering’

Toobalink, one of the fresh new ideas at Toy Fair this year. Photo: Amy Kraft

Maybe I’ve been going to Toy Fair too long. I’ve lost count, but I’m guessing this was probably my tenth Toy Fair in New York City. I’m starting to get a little cynical. Every year things seem to get more and more derivative, but this year I saw some things that for me crossed the line into theft of intellectual property, particularly in some big booths of some big companies. I got to thinking, what does it mean to be original? As I put together this list of products, I decided that original in this context means to take existing play patterns but put a unique spin on them. These are the toys that stood out as having something unique to offer.

Toobalink: This ingenius building toy is enhance by the fact that you can use the connector pieces with toilet paper and paper towel cardboard tubes. The more tubes you collect, the bigger you can build.

Loog: I’ve heard about this DIY guitar, but Toy Fair is the first time I got my hands on one. Kids will learn about the instrument by building it, and then they can learn the basics of playing guitar on three strings instead of the more intimidating six-string guitar. This was what I most wanted for myself at Toy Fair.

Goldie Blox, great for maker girls. Photo: Amy Kraft

Goldie Blox: I first saw Goldie Blox at Maker Faire where they fit right in, and they were a breath of fresh air at Toy Fair. Goldie Blox are designed to get girls interested in engineering by pairing building toys with storybooks about a girl who likes to invent things.

Nancy B Science Club: From Educational Insights, this is another product line that got STEM right for girls. They could have simply slapped girly colors on science tools as so many have done before them, but instead, they pair the tools with activity journals designed to spark experiments and ideas, and to follow more social play patterns exhibited by girls.

My 2-year-old got a pre-Toy Fair look at Tagamoto. Photo: Amy Kraft

Tagamoto: Tagamoto is the latest from Innovation First, creators of Hexbug. Indeed, when Santa brought Tagamoto for my kids, my daughter proclaimed, “It’s like Hexbugs, but better!” Kids assemble the roadway and then “code the road,” customizing the track to make the cars behave in certain ways. They’ll come to a stop at a stop sign, honk their horn, turn on their headlights or radio, and more.

Schmovie: The Hilarious Game of Outlandish Films. Photo: Amy Kraft

Schmovie: Schmovie is a game created by my friend Sara Farber with her husband, Bryan Wilson. The goal is to come up with hilarious movie titles based on random combinations of characters and genres. Here are some examples from their very active Facebook page: A drama about a fancy bowling team? Downton Alley. An action film about a deranged handyman? Dye Hard with a Varnish. A sci-fi film about a fashionista scientist? Logan’s Runway. You get the idea.

Obos: I want to collect them all. Photo: Amy Kraft

Obos: I fell in love with these little figurines with rearrangeable features. What’s nice about these toys is that in addition to the adorable factor and the build-it-yourself play, there’s virtually no packaging. Just remove the piece of paper around the outside and you’re ready to start building.

Little electronic bits from Little Bits. Photo: Amy Kraft

Little Bits: Little Bits are “a little bit of geeky fun.” A little bit is an understatement. These circuit-builders are not only super easy to use, but thanks to their size, they’re very easy to incorporate into a ton of different projects. Though the sets themselves don’t come with a lot of project ideas, their website is full of projects that inspire. Plus, they’re coming out with new inclusive project sets, like a cardboard cat that shakes when you touch its tongue.

Make your own toolbox jewelry with Klutz. Photo: Amy Kraft

Klutz: Sure you’ll see project kits for kids all around Toy Fair, but the Klutz kits are the ones I come back to time and time again, not only for quality but also for great ideas. (They’re my go-to gift for just about every birthday party.) Among the new kits that caught my eye this year is Toolbox Jewelry, designed with a special eye to get dads interested in crafting with their kids. Plus, what a great way to reuse the extra nuts and bolts you have sifting around in the bottom of the toolbox.

The pressure’s on! What’s Activision going to do with Skylanders next year?

Is the purpose of formal educational institutions to bring about a learned society where all citizens have a level of knowledge to participate equally? Or is the purpose to provide the necessary skills that will fill jobs and move our country forward? Are they exclusionary?

I’ve never been entirely clear what public schools want (maybe they don’t know either), but for private companies in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields, the answer is obvious: skilled workers. According to the 2012 IBM Tech Trends Skills Survey, only one in ten companies said they had all the skills within their company that they needed. Emerging skills like cloud computing, business analytics, global and social business sills, were lacking. The majority of companies cannot innovate until that skills gap is closed. IBM isn’t just looking to have those kind of skills within their own company, but in their global customers as well. Hence, the direct intervention with the school system.

For decades companies have donated money and/or equipment to schools in the hopes that the school system would use the tools to encourage students into STEM fields. Although there are schools that certainly try, the lack of skilled graduates is proof that the traditional model of education is not providing. The world of innovation comes from imagination, teamwork, and real-world experience. Tech companies have stepped into the school system to try to make something new happen- something that might give them the skilled workers they need.

Jim Sporher. Image: IBM

In my interviews with Intel and AMD, I focused on the younger grades, with after school, and in-school programs designed to spark excitement and creativity within the STEM fields. While talking with Jim Sporher who leads IBM’s University Programs, I heard about partnerships and the complete transformation of higher education. In these increasingly popular programs, the company writes the curriculum for the college, brings in current employees into the classroom, and takes the students out of the classroom and into real-world environments.

Will direct involvement in school curriculum and teaching give the results these companies want? Is this what is best for students? Something about partnerships between profit-driven companies and national education is unsettling. Yet, how is this any different from the track system, still in use, that separates students early on into different types of career paths? Perhaps giving skills for jobs is really all schools can do, and if that’s true, they aren’t doing it well or fast enough for the private sector.

Companies are stepping in big time. According to their Corporate Social Responsibility Report, IBM provides over one hundred million dollars to higher education, with much of that being access to current software. The last ten years has seen many companies become more engaged in education, and the last year has been particularly exciting. Companies are working together through professional organizations like IEEE. Yes, profit-driven companies are all realizing they need to figure out the technology skills gap problem as a group, and change the landscape of education so they can all benefit.

Jim finds this a thrilling development in the field of higher education, and within the industry. The companies realize they cannot do this alone, everyone needs skilled workers. These partnerships give everyone the ability to coordinate and bring the entire system up. With technology changing at such a fast rate, this communication is imperative to keep graduating students relevant to the real world. And with direct access to the current technology, entrepreneurship becomes possible.

Why now? Jim stated that this is the first point in history that we have the technology and global connections for cheap and easy access to incredible amounts of data. Computing power and communication allow ideas to be shared and grown at a faster rate. The constant contact through surveys with industries of what they need, is one of the most important tools IBM uses to let educational institutions adjust their curriculum to the accelerating pace of change.

I think the most unsettling aspect of this is that I’m not more unsettled. The world is changing, and if schools are eager to let private companies keep them up to date on exactly what skills are needed, perhaps that’s the only way to help our students find success in the STEM fields. What do you think?

Toy Fair 2013 in London last month was full of card games of all types ranging from fast, fun, family ones to slow, solitary ones. Some of the best were on the Elemental Publishing stand so here’s a look at a few of the games we picked up there and have been playing over the last few weeks.

Elemons is a new combative card game and free app that uses cartoon characters called Elemons to teach basic chemistry principles.

State Mode is the first of a series of games that will appear in the range and introduces the first 12 characters, including Carbomon, Chloromon and Oxymon, in a starter deck that allows for battles to take place right out of the box.

Along with the nicely illustrated character cards are a deck of heating and cooling cards that alter your Elemon by the value of the card. Heating or cooling Elemons changes their state. For example, Bromon exists as a liquid if you choose not to play a temperature card with him, but a cooling card of a value of one or more changes him to a solid. Similarly, a heating card value of one or more changes him to a gas.

Battles consist of multiple rounds, during each round players select an Elemon and a heating or cooling card from their hand. They can also select the neutral temperature card if they do not wish to alter their Elemon’s state. Players then reveal their cards and thus the state of their Elemon.

Rounds are decided using the rock-paper-scissors mechanism: Gas engulfs Solid, Solid splashes Liquid, Liquid disperses Gas. If a round is drawn then both players move their Elemons to the bottom of their draw pile. If a player wins then he/she takes their opponent’s Elemon and creates a pile of steals. The first player to steal ten Elemons wins the battle.

Because a certain Kickstarter campaign had piqued my interest a few months ago, Santa was able to deliver a Roominate kit for my 7-year-old daughter on Christmas morning. Designed by two female engineers, Roominate is billed as a building toy for girls.

When we had a nice big chunk of time, we opened the Roominate kit and my daughter got to work. Though there were instructions, she took stock of all of the box contents and had a look of intuitive understanding: Build a room. Yeah, got it. And away she went. She put together all of the walls like a blank canvas, stared at it, then decided she was going to make a bedroom. The little blue and orange plastic pieces snap together in a wide variety of ways to make furniture and other room decor. She built a desk, a bed, a nightstand, and an aquarium stand before running out of pieces.

After building comes decorating. Note the mini cootie catcher and band posters. Photo: Amy Kraft

Then came one of the things that got Roominate noticed — electronics. Our kit came with a switch, wires, and a spinning motor to build a (suggested) fan. We noticed that when building the fan as instructed, the paper blades would fly off whenever we turned it on. Then we started brainstorming other uses for it. One of the ideas I liked best was my daughter’s idea of giving the room its own spin art station. While I had hoped for the electronics to be more integrated (lights, etc.) this strange little motor sparked some great creative thinking.

Roominate appeals to me in a way that Lego Friends turns me off, and shows that toys designed thoughtfully with a gender in mind can work. Both toys want to get girls building, and both try to tap into girls’ play patterns. You could argue that both toys don’t have a ton of building happening relative to other building toys, but it’s in the tapping into girls’ play patterns where I think Roominate is more successful. I loved watching my daughter create little details for the room, like the math homework on the desk and the poster on the wall for her fictitious band, The Waffles. When she was done, she immediately started strategizing the next room, and what else we could bring from around the house to add to it. I’d like to challenge her to add more electronics to the room, and it just so happens that a Little Bits kit has just arrived. Also, even though these are designed for girls, the packaging is wonderfully gender neutral for boys who will enjoy it too.

The Roominate kits start range from $59 to $225, so they’re far from cheap. I hope that as Roominate expands their fledgling business they have more price points and even more types of electronics to spark kids’ curiosity. I’d love to see this toy take off.

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Allyson Peerman, corporate vice-president of semiconductor design company AMD, and president of AMD Foundation, about the firm’s efforts to bring video game design programs into our schools.

Allyson started the conversation saying how she liked the title of my own education company, Out of the Box Creative Learning, because that’s how the education system has to work nowadays. Throughout the conversation, I realized that Allyson has been striving her whole career to rethink education, benefitting the engineering fields and American students.

My first question was why are STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) based companies so interested in helping education today? Besides giving money to schools, I don’t remember companies actively creating educational programs when I was a kid. Her answer was logical: they need a steady supply of workers. They want to hire the smartest, most innovative workers. And if those workers come from America, even better. But the current education system does not encourage the type of thinking that brings students into those fields. This is why AMD, Intel and many other high-tech companies are taking the initiative with educational programs.

One example is Changing the Game, AMD’s program to teach kids to make their own video games on a variety of subjects. The program was based on an investigation into how to teach science, technology, engineering and math to kids in the most engaging way possible. The fact that children love games is obvious. And for this generation of children, video games especially are the favorite mode of play.

A temporary sign for a temporary location. My sons in front of the Pensacola MESS Hall. This unique concept in science museums needs to become the standard. Photo: Patricia Vollmer

This summer my sons and I have already paid two visits to Pensacola, Florida’s newest science museum, the Pensacola MESS Hall. Where MESS = Math, Engineering, Science, and Stuff. My husband is now asking us to join us this week (we had previously gone while he was at work) and we’ll be squeezing in one more visit before the facility temporarily closes on August 18th.

What is the MESS Hall?

At the MESS Hall, everything — and we mean everything — is meant to be hands-on. There is guidance for math and science activities, but the kids can follow the directions… or take things in a completely different direction. There is no wrong answer at the MESS Hall.

Like a real mess hall, museum patrons “order” an experiment at the counter. The experiment choices are offered on a “menu” which is seen on the counter towards the right. The materials for the experiment chosen are presented on a cafeteria-style plastic tray. Photo: Patricia Vollmer

The MESS Hall has this cafeteria feel when you walk in. There are tables with cafeteria-style trays filled with experiment supplies, kids are sitting at the tables performing experiments. There’s a counter in the back corner. Again, like a cafeteria, there’s a menu of “MESS Kit” experiments available, and the kids (and adults!) can walk up to the counter and “order” an experiment to perform.

There is a guidebook to accompany the materials. The guidebook follows the scientific process, presenting the procedure, prompting hypotheses, observation and changing of variables. Then the experimenter is asked to form conclusions. At the end of the little guidebook is a more thorough explanation.

Where have you been all my life? After years of visiting kids’ museums filled with a few interactive exhibits here and there, projects such as those offered at the MESS Hall are typically tucked in a back corner at other places. The museum visitors experiencing the scientific method are generally in a large auditorium, participating in a Mr. Wizard’s World-type of program.

As described in this article from earlier this summer, Dr. Pratt received enough funding to run a trial-version of the MESS Hall in Downtown Pensacola during the school districts’ summer vacation. A science experiment in and of itself, so says Dr. Pratt. After this summer trial run, which ends on August 18th, the Friday before school starts in our community, the museum board plans to embark on a fundraising campaign to raise enough capital to establish a larger permanent location in Downtown Pensacola starting in 2013.

My youngest son with another famous face. He’s taking part in the “Taste Test” experiment, where the subject will taste a strip with the compound “PTC”. PTC is a genetic marker that relates to the ability to taste bitter substances. Photo: Patricia Vollmer

Why Do My Sons and I Love the MESS Hall? Let Me Count the Ways.

There is no right or wrong answer to these experiments. There is no timeline for conducting the experiments. Kids can be as messy as they want (or as messy as their parents can handle).

The experiments available cover a wide spectrum of science disciplines: biology, robotics, chemistry, geosciences, electromagnetism, optics and chromatography…among many others.

At $5 per person, consider what one gets: unlimited access to experiment materials, space for conducting the experiments — and making the messes, and kids being able to interact with others all in the name of science.

Parents can partake, too!

In this slime experiment, you can see how the materials are presented on a cafeteria-style tray and there’s a laminated booklet that guides the experimenter through the process. Photo: Patricia Vollmer

I can’t wait to see what the future of the Pensacola MESS Hall brings. I overheard one of the volunteer directors mention that the facility has been so popular, he’s confident in their ability to raise the money to continue Dr. Pratt’s dream! I’ll help out as much as I can!

General Motors recognizes the importance of having women involved in the development of its cars and had a whole team of mom engineers working on the new Chevy Malibu. GeekMom Nicole Wakelin talks with two members of that team and discusses what it’s like being a woman in a predominantly male field as well as how to encourage kids to pursue their dreams in spite of stereotypes that might tell them otherwise.

Lego. We love them. They ignite the imagination, allowing both children and adults of all ages to build and create amazing things. Recently, Lego has been specifically targeting young girls in a variety of marketing campaigns, and with the addition of a Lego Friends line. This has resulted in a lot of heated debate.

There is nothing “frilly” or “girly” about Ladyada’s Workshop. Instead, your child will find all the necessary tools to create the electronics and products begging to be freed from their imagination. What are these tools? The list is quite wonderful:

I am happy to be tackling once again the subject of getting girls into the STEM majors, this time in honor of Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day.

To better understand the problem about why so few women are going in engineering, Intel conducted a study among 1,004 teens to determine their perception of engineering. The study was ”designed to determine teens’ perceptions of engineering as well as motivations and barriers for pursuing or not pursuing a career in engineering”. What they found is that lack of familiarity with the field was the main obstacle.

These were some the statistics they got:

Intel Study: Interest in engineering pre-messaging. Image used with permission.

Intel Study: Reasons to reconsider engineering. Image used with permission.

Since you’ve already heard my point of view about Computer Science again and again and again and again, I thought we could celebrate this day with a few words from other people for a change! Following on the train of thought of the Intel study, I was curious to compare among different women in engineering how they were introduced to the field and what they do to pay it forward. I was lucky enough to round up a fantastic and impressive group of women: Wendy Hawkins, the executive director of the Intel Foundation, Erin Wakefield, a senior component design engineer and engineering manager at Intel, and Erin Stropus, a senior systems test engineer and former classmate of mine.

Wendy Hawkins, photo from LinkedIn profile

WENDYHAWKINS, executive director of the Intel Foundation.

Can you tell our readers a little bit about what you do as the executive director of the Intel Foundation?

One of the things I love about my work is that each day is different from the next. Some days I am focused on designing and developing programs that help advance our objectives around advancing education globally. Other days I am meeting with other philanthropists to figure out ways we can work together more effectively. I do a lot of public speaking on education and philanthropy here in the U.S. and elsewhere. Many days I am working with Intel people all around the world to support their efforts to bring about education improvements in their countries.

What is your favorite part of your job?

I get up every day and go to work knowing that what I do has value beyond the paycheck I earn. That is a gift I treasure. I try to deserve it.

Which of your events do you consider to be the most successful in terms of impact? How does the Intel Foundation quantify success?

Oh my – you are making me choose my favorite child?? I love them all, but the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair has impact and ripple effects that reach many millions of students all around the globe. We know that well above 7 million students participate in science fairs directly tied to this program. We know from research – and from direct experience – that students who get the chance to do real science and engineering, who don’t just learn about the subjects, will carry that experience with them throughout their lives. Many of them actually become scientists and engineers – which is our greatest hope. But, the experience enriches the lives of those who go on to careers in other fields, as well. They learn to think critically, to solve problems, to understand the world around them, and to make good decisions about their lives and health and citizenship, all by drawing on what they have learned. Science and engineering are empowering and exciting fields. Memorizing facts and formulas simply cannot ignite that spark the way rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty – performing experiments, building things, and learning something that no one else in the world knows, because you are the first person to find it – now that is exhilarating.

From your experience, what kind of questions do teens have about engineering?

Unless they are lucky enough to have an engineer in their family, most teens know almost nothing about the field. For starters, in today’s economic climate, teens are pretty amazed by what engineers earn and the data about engineers getting and keeping good jobs. But, I think more than anything, teens are fascinated to learn of how many different ‘flavors’ of engineers there are – the kinds of problems engineers get to solve, the arenas in which they are instrumental to making the world a better place. They cover just about any subject a teen could imagine. Who makes it possible for the rock star to rock? The engineer who designed their lighting and sound equipment. Who is creating the prosthetic devices that allow injured veterans to go on to live full and active lives? Who figures out how to get safe drinking water to people in drought-ravaged regions? Who is designing robotic cars that drive themselves? The whizziest new computing technologies? You name it, and an engineer is making it possible. When teens have the chance to see what engineers actually do, they perk up and get really interested!

Is there a specific message you try to get across to teens about engineering? Specifically to girls?

Engineers change the world. They solve real problems. They improve lives. And, they live good lives themselves. The best way to make sure that engineers pay attention to the problems that girls think are important, is for girls to get in there and become engineers themselves!

When I read in the news about events like the Intel Science Talent Search, I feel like the winners (and most of the participants) are extraordinary kids that “the rest of us” can’t hold a candle to. Is there a push to also introduce the average student to engineering?

Absolutely. The competitions certainly highlight some pretty amazing young people, but there is plenty of work for the rest of us, too. We work with schools across the U.S. and around the world to encourage opportunities for hands-on learning in engineering and science among every student. Robotics programs give all kids a chance to design, build and operate robots. The “Engineering is Elementary” project gives elementary students a taste of what engineering is. Our employees volunteer in schools all over the world to teach about engineering, computers, programming and related subjects. We advocate for high quality science and engineering education locally and nationally. Something relatively new on the scene are ‘maker fairs’ and other in- and out-of-school opportunities for both kids and adults to use tools and actually design and build things, to get a taste of what it means to be an engineer. There is room in the field for students with a wide range of abilities and interests.

As a software engineer and the mother of a toddler, I don’t currently have many opportunities to interact with teenagers. What can I do to participate in Engineers Week and Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day?

Contact your local high school and offer to come visit their classes to talk about your experience as an engineer. What do you love about the field? How did you prepare for your career? What is your life like beyond work? (Do you earn a good living? Can you balance work and family life? Can you teach a hands-on lesson to give the students a taste of what an engineer does?) The National Engineers Week coordinators in your area can help with support materials and often with scheduling to help match you to a school or classroom that will welcome a visit.

I sometimes get questions from non-technical parents about how they can help foster their child’s interest and education in STEM beyond their own level of knowledge. Do you have any suggestions for them?

Robotics clubs and maker fairs are a great introduction to the field for kids as young as elementary school. Books and television shows that showcase the fields of engineering and science can inspire. Science museums often offer classes and camps that encourage and teach. Friends and family who work in the field can be a great resource – have your child interview an engineer, shadow them for a day or ask an engineer to advise and mentor them as they prepare a project to enter in their local (Intel ISEF-affiliated!) science and engineering fair.

Throughout high school, I was pretty good at a variety of things but not really good at any one thing. I could have gone in a number of different directions, but there were two main reasons I ended up in computer engineering.

The first reason is that my dad is a computer scientist. Not only is he a computer scientist, but he’s also a big techie and gadget dork.

The second reason is my cousin Stacy – a mechanical engineer who also graduated from the University of Michigan. Growing up, I loved seeing what a strong career woman Stacy was, how she worked at really cool places, traveled all over, and had such a glamorous, corporate life.

Putting my two role models together I ended up with Computer Engineering as my major and have never regretted that decision.

When did you know you wanted to go into engineering?

AOL first became popular while I was in middle school, and my dad was one of the first people I knew to get an account (with a LOT of hours), thus providing me nearly unlimited access to the internet at an early age. In all the hours I spent playing on his computer (when I wasn’t fighting my siblings for the computer or phone line), I loved how intuitive it was to me and how easy it was for me to figure out how to do things and use applications I’d never received any instruction on. I felt if it was that easy for me, I must be good at it.

What college path did you take and why?

University of Michigan, B.S. in Computer Engineering, 2001-2005

Portland State University, Masters in Engineering and Technology Management, 2008-2010

Right after graduating from undergrad at the University of Michigan, I started working at Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon. In 2008, while still working at Intel, I went to Portland State University to get my masters. I was approved for two different masters degrees (engineering management and a technical engineering degree) but decided to only do the management degree in the interest of time. Intel is extremely supportive of continuing education. Intel understands that its engineers need to keep learning throughout their career to stay sharp.

What do you do now?

I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a number of different Intel products spanning multiple market segments, but all in the field of hardware validation. When I first began at Intel, I worked on post-silicon validation of mainstream CPU and server products.

After working on the CPU and servers team for about two and half years, I wanted to try my hand at something new and moved into a newly formed “start-up” team at Intel – working on pre-silicon validation of an IA based programmable discrete graphics card. During my three years of working on this team I moved first into a technical lead role and then into my first management role, managing a team that grew from three to 17 employees spanning two different Intel sites.

Currently, I work at Intel in Chandler, Arizona (moved from Oregon in November of 2010). I work in validation for a System-on-a-Chip (SOC) product used in consumer electronics, where I manage a team that owns pre- and post-silicon validation of security and codecs for consumer electronics and tablets.

What is your favorite part of your job?

The best part of my job is that it changes every day. There are always exciting new challenges and opportunities, and I never get bored. I also enjoy the fact that I work with some of the smartest people on the planet, and I am constantly learning and growing in my role.

Have you participated in events promoting engineering to teens?

Yes! I am currently the secretary of the Phoenix section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and have been an active member holding various officer roles since my freshman year of college. One of SWE’s largest initiatives is outreach, and we’re constantly initiating and volunteering for activities to promote and educate K-12 students on STEM careers and opportunities. The SWE sections I’ve worked with have done everything from working with Girl Scout troops on engineering badges to inviting high school students to college campuses to shadowing engineering students throughout their day.

Did you consider the events to be a success?

The STEM outreach events I’ve been involved in have been a HUGE success. Students really seem engaged and excited by the engineering activities we do with them. I think the students also appreciate interacting with an organization like SWE – since it’s a great opportunity to meet strong female mentors in a variety of different engineering fields.

What kind of questions have teens asked you about engineering?

Some of the more common questions I get from teens about engineering are related to the impact of what I do and how engineering benefits society in general. They also often ask about the coolness factor, including details of the technology I work on and what kind of perks and pay I earn as an engineer.

Is there a specific message you try to get across to teens about engineering? Specifically to girls?

I think a lot of young woman in tech fall victim to confidence issues – especially when comparing themselves to their peers. As a result, one of my biggest pieces of advice to young women in tech is to stick with it, not be discouraged, and keep in mind that they’re a lot smarter and more capable than they tend to give themselves credit for. Women bring unique skill sets, perspectives, and opinions into the tech industry – and this diversity is CRITICAL to the success of any organization. Yes – women may have different experiences and knowledge than their male peers, but that’s what makes them so valuable!

Also, I would advise young women to not be afraid to ask questions, especially when starting a new role. Inquisitiveness is good, and since you only get busier as you move through your career, it’s important to take advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow.

Will you be celebrating Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day this year, how?

Both Intel and the Phoenix section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) are actively participating in Engineer Week (E-Week) of which Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is a part of. That being said, I’m not personally doing anything this year specifically for that day, but I do plan to actively engage our SWE section, including myself, in doing something for 2013.

Classic “Engineering” I discovered in high school but the technology world in general was introduced to me by my parents when my dad brought a Commodore 64 home for us to use. Eventually it evolved into the classic desktop computer, which I used to self-teach myself.

When did you know you wanted to go into engineering?

I knew I liked engineering when I was first truly introduced to it in high school and took some more advanced classes. I liked to see what I could create via code in a program, which was quite a feat in of itself since our classroom computers were so terribly slow and not up to the task!

What college path did you take and why?

Computer Science was my major and I started out with a minor in German but ended up majoring in that as well. Both I had studied in my years at high school and enjoyed them. Spoken language is not too different in its basics than computer programming languages: they have syntax, rules, exceptions, and logic that must be followed in order for it to be properly understood. I believe the similarities are what helped me excel in both. As for schooling, I knew I would go straight to a four-year university as my parents had always pushed that goal since I was a child and was an excellent student. In the near future, I may find a time in my busy life to work on grad school – I have looked into both a Masters in Business or Computer Science.

What do you do now?

Straight out of college I was hired at a local branch of a company with locations worldwide and works closely with the government and military as a defense contractor. I currently hold the title of Senior Systems Test Engineer where I am involved in the design, development, and testing of our software products.

Have you participated in events promoting engineering to teens?

For the last six years I have worked for my company, I have helped out during Engineering Week when we invite local high school students to attend to learn about engineering, our jobs, and to hear about real life experiences. I also spoke at an event for local high school girls through MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement) that was held at Cal State University Channel Islands. Other programs I have had the great opportunity to take part in were career speeches at the schools and Johns Hopkins University Engineering Innovation program for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Did you consider the events to be a success?

I do consider the events to be a great help for the kids because I am not much older than they are and they can see how they can attain their goals in the very near future if they apply themselves to their education. I have received many letters of thanks, too, from attendees who say that they have appreciated my specific insights that I have given to them.

What kind of questions have teens asked you about engineering?

The first questions of engineering I have been asked about by students were the types of classes I had to take in school to get my specific job and what my salary is. :) Usually though the specific questions are what types of programming languages used in my workplace, how I get along with my coworkers, and what I hate/enjoy the most about my job.

Is there a specific message you try to get across to teens about engineering?

My points I try to drive home to the kids is that they should work hard on their education and dabble into internships and jobs while taking classes so that they can have experience once they graduate college. I point out that sometimes one may not get the dream job he/she has always wanted but with hard work and dedication, their sacrifices will pay off in the long run.

Will you be celebrating Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day this year, how?

I will be celebrating Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day this year and my workplace has posted information and posters on getting involved. Sadly, this year I will not be able to help out in the event for Engineering Week with the visiting high school students due to a project requiring my full attention and presence.

I am so inspired by these women. They are busy gals no doubt, yet they make time to promote engineering. Not because they get something out of it, not because they have to do it. They are just truly devoted to actively participating in the engineer community and helping youth find their path. Intel’s study delivers a short and powerful message: knowledge is power. For this Introduce A Girl To Engineer Day and Engineers Week, why don’t you help others by paying it forward?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Barack Obama announced a new goal of recruiting 10,000 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teachers over the next two years. This announcement will move the country forward on the Obama Administration’s ambitious goal of preparing 100,000 STEM teachers over the next decade.

Statement by President Obama: “When I came into office, I set a goal of moving our nation from the middle to the top of the pack in math and science education. Strengthening STEM education is vital to preparing our students to compete in the 21st century economy and we need to recruit and train math and science teachers to support our nation’s students.”

–White House Press Release, 2010

The President’s chances of getting his 10,000 engineers is “essentially nil.”

–Dr. David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Engineering, 2011

Last fall I had the very great privilege of visiting the White House to listen as First Lady Michelle Obama made the introductory comments to the National Science Foundation’s new “Career-Life Balance Initiative.” As GeekMom Helene McLaughlin explained in her post about the event, “Women make up 41% of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math)-related graduates but only 28% of full-tenure tracked researchers.” In other words, at the top of the STEM chain, we’re losing huge numbers of women.

This is true despite the fact that it is actually in the nation’s interest (and womens’ interests) to provide these female graduates with the supports they need in order to keep them in the STEM pipeline: On average, women in STEM careers earn 33% more then women in other fields, while STEM jobs are among the most stable and profitable in the current economy. Juxtapose these facts against the recent New York Times article “Young Mothers Describe Marriage’s Fading Allure” that reported that birth patterns for women under 30 are experiencing a radical shift with “sixty-three percent of all births to women under 30 in Lorain County occuring outside marriage…a figure that has risen by more than two-thirds over the past two decades, now surpassing the national figure of 53 percent,” and a mother might begin to believe that the single best way she can prepare her daughter for adulthood is to steer her into a STEM career. Convincing most women that STEM jobs are desirable, however, involves a hydra head of hurdles.

NSF’s Work-Life Initiative was aimed at just one log-jam in the STEM-careers pipeline: getting women into tenured PhD positions in science, technology, engineering, and math. In order to achieve this goal, the National Science Foundation planned to begin promoting family-friendly opportunities at the PhD level–for instance: encouraging the extension of the tenure clock and allowing grant suspension for up to a year of parental leave.

There are many other weak spots in the women-in-STEM pipeline, however. Recent studies have found that “roughly 40 percent of all students planning engineering and science majors end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree”–a fact that is partially attributed to the traditional “freshman year math-science death march” and partially attributed to the fact that science is hard. Students in the hard sciences have to study longer and work harder to earn GPAs that are often lower than GPAs in the arts or softer sciences. This is actually resulting in an alarming number of young people graduating from college with useless degrees in the current job market.

For girls in particular, additional STEM-career pitfalls occur in middle school, when according to author and educator Rachel Simmons, girls begin to experience a “psychological glass ceiling” that tells them, “Yes, you be smart–but make sure you don’t make anyone uncomfortable with your intelligence.” Simmons goes on to say:

“Girls experience an alarming loss of self esteem as they approach adolescence–and this is a loss that crosses ethnic, racial and socio-economic lines. In a 2006 study, 74% of girls told researchers they were under a lot of pressure to please everyone. In my own research, when I asked girls What is a good girl to you? I was told: It’s a girl who has to do everything perfect, never disappoint anyone, be liked by everyone. So despite this age of “girl power,” girls continue to get conflicting messages about personal authority and after college these amazing girls actually become known for more troubling distinctions. They may be less likely to ask for a raise, to manage conflict and failure, and to advocate for themselves.”

A young woman experiencing cultural pressure “to be perfect” may find it particularly challenging, then, to major in STEM fields that are notorious for lower grades but are characterized by high intelligence. Even if she does successfully major in a STEM field, she may not have the emotional skill-set to thrive in a male-dominated workplace.

Yet another snag in the STEM pipeline exists even earlier in students’ development. A recent Scientific American article promoting the This is What a Scientist Looks Like website recounted a study where kindergarteners were asked to draw a scientist. Invariably, they drew a picture of a grim white man in a white lab coat—and explained that they didn’t see themselves that way.

With so many obstacles for anyone–particularly women–to gain entry into STEM fields, one begins to wonder: where are the solutions and what can parents do to fight against a near-overwhelming tide. Here are my thoughts:

From a very young age, parents can promote a love of science, technology, engineering and math in the home through the toys they purchase and the activities they do with their children. Visits to aquariums, zoos, and science museums show children that STEM pursuits are valued in their family culture. Additionally, parents should work to banish the stereotype of “the grim scientist in the white lab coat” from their child’s mind by making a point to introduce young children to scientists at every opportunity–this way, children populate their schema of “what is a scientist” with complex, fun-loving human beings who are often happily passionate about their work.

Parents should pressure their school districts to keep science in every classroom at every grade through letter-writing campaigns and attendance at PTA meetings. As we all know, schools these days are under a great deal of top-down pressure with regards to standardized testing, and as a result, science is often one of the first subjects to be removed from the early-elementary curriculum. Bring this topic to the top of your school district’s to-do list! Your child’s future employment may actually depend on it.

When helping children choose colleges to apply to and attend, parents should take a close look at the curriculum with their children and analyze the way the STEM programs are designed. Is the program designed as a “math-science death march” or is the curriculum engaging, collaborative, and personalized enough that young adults are supported and don’t give up?

Without the life-long support of parents, children–particularly young women–are less likely to study for and enter careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. What are you doing to make sure that your children are job-ready? Leave your suggestions and ideas in the comments.

Students, from left, Gaby Dempsey, 12, Kate Murray, 13, and Mackenzie Grewell, 13, read in the Red Room of the White House after setting up their science fair exhibit, Feb. 6, 2012. The three girls, part of the Flying Monkeys First Lego League Team from Ames Middle School in Ames, Iowa, will participate in the second annual White House Science Fair with over 100 students from 45 states. CREDIT: Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert

Nothing like flying marshmallows to keep the secret service busy protecting President Barak Obama. Tuesday was the second annual White House Science Fair. The president seemed to have a blast playing with science yesterday, he even caused a little bit of innocent trouble with 14 year old Maker Faire veteran, Joey Hudy of Phoenix, AZ, as they shot a marshmallow across the bustling East Room of the White House.

This year’s projects ranged from marshmallow cannons to homemade robots to targeted cancer treatment research. The president was surely excited to meet one particular participant, Samantha Garvey, an Intel Science Talent Search 2012 semifinalist. Samantha completed a study of the mussel life on Long Island while she was homeless. Obama used her project as a perfect example of how even under the most difficult situations, the study of science and engineering can improve ones circumstances.

The President talked with Samantha Garvey, 18, of Bay Shore, N.Y., about her environmental sciences project examining the effect of physical environment and predators on a specific species of mussel, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Feb. 7, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The White House Science Fair was started late 2010 as one of many initiatives to encourage STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education around the nation, fulfilling a commitment he made at the launch of his Educate to Innovate campaign. In an address to the students, the president explained that his administration and its partners are working to educate 100,000 science and math teachers and to train 1 million additional STEM graduates over the next decade, it will be known as the 100kin10 initiative.

“As an American, I’m proud of you, and as your president, I think we need to make sure your success stories are happening all across our country,” he said. “Let’s train more teachers, let’s get more kids studying these subjects.”

The president has asked for $80 million in the yet-to-be-approved Department of Education budget, to be invested specifically into STEM teachers. This would cover programs that allow undergraduates to get both a STEM degree and a teaching certificate (including time spent in the classroom honing their skills). An additional $22 million has been donated by 14 private companies, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As another part of the 100kin10 initiative public programs such as Teach for America and National Math and Science Initiative will recruit and prepare nearly 15,000 STEM teachers around the nation.

Play the old game Blackbird. It’s simple yet advances creative thinking and is sure to promote laughter. Alter tradition a little by using a thesaurus instead of a dictionary. If you don’t know how to play, it’s easy. Each person takes a turn asking a question aloud, then opens the book at random and without looking, jabs his or her finger somewhere on the selected page. The challenge? To make that word or some part of its definition answer the question. The questions must be somewhat open-ended rather the yes/no variety. For example: Why do I have to get up so early every day? Will I become a movie animator? How does my sister always get the last cookie? What do aliens really look like?

Bently was the first to successfully photograph snowflakes. Delve into the art and science of snow in these 8 amusing ways. If you’re shut in by snow (or for any other reason) employ these cabin fever cures and toss in some brain challenges . Don’t forget to get out there and play in the snow!

This once-every-four-years day can’t go by without commemoration. Find all sorts of ways to leap. Have jumping contests. Tell tall tales. Try a leap of faith (in yourself) by attempting something entirely new.

Find out which indie comic book stores near you participates and what you need to know to celebrate. You might want to learn about the evolution of today’s comics. Click here for a brief look and here for a more extensive historical survey. Also consider creating your own comic strips or books, even stage a re-enactment of your favorite scenes in the back yard.

As The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy advises us “A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.” Potential towel-related activities include all possible reasons to get soaked, from hot tub to ocean. You might toss in towel snapping lessons for those who haven’t yet hit locker room age. Make it a cross genre celebration if you’d like. South Park’s Towelie famously reminds us “don’t forget to bring a towel.”

June 11: ET turns 30

Any ET event needs to include pizza and Reese’s Pieces. You might add in bike racing. Or set up teams that work together to turn junk into “phone home” devices.

This inventor pioneered the method necessary for the world’s first mechanical television system. Remember Paul by turning TV watching in your home into a creative act. Make up alternative prequels or sequels for your favorite programs. Talk about the motivations of characters, the trajectory of story lines, and the way real life contrasts with TV life. Write and film your show. Learn how marketers use mass media to make children into whiningly persistant consumers. Check out Center for Media Literacy and Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood for resources to help young people develop critical thinking skills related to media.

This champion of civil rights and global human rights got her start as a teacher of dance and calisthenics. Celebrate this forthright woman’s achievements by learning to make your own geeky music. Try writing new lyrics for a song you already know or learn using sheet music of your favorite theme songs. And check out the website of GeekMom’s resident songstress, Rebecca Angel.

November 9: Birthday of Carl Sagan (1934)

This famous astronomer brought his fascination down to earth for a whole generation. You might want to learn more about his childhood and check out his books. Make sure to celebrate too. In his honor you might choose to wear a turtleneck, learn to recognize a constellation, visit a public observatory or planetarium near you, take a full moon walk to enjoy your neighborhood by lunar light, or watch Wonders of the Universe.

December 16: Birthday of Arthur C. Clarke (1917)

Celebrate this and all clever sci-fi writers. Revisit your favorite sci-fi short stories or films, first looking up something about the writers’ lives to help you understand their influences. Try looking at today’s news from the perspective of time travelers from the past or future. And to help create the next generation of sci-fi writers, get your kids to predict the future.

Share with your fellow GeekMom readers what other dates we should be celebrating!

I’m not even going to pretend I understand the finer details of this – but the fact that I’m not a mathematician doesn’t make this project any less awesome. Andrew Carol is an Apple engineer by day, but in his spare time? He’s busy creating things like an Antikythera Mechanism out of LEGO bricks. Modeled after the ancient Greek original, it calculates the date and time of solar and lunar eclipses over a hundred year period. With more than 100 gears and 7 differential gearboxes, it’s accurate to within a day or two. Carol covers the abstract math and the construction of the device in detail, in case you might like to try it.

Of course, not all of us are ready to tackle such a huge project. For those of us who would tear our hair out in large clumps trying to figure out those gear ratios have a little less time on our hands, Carol has created a smaller project that seems pretty easy to replicate at home. A compass built out of LEGO bricks. No magnet required. Based on ancient Chinese engineering, the device – called a south facing chariot – is part steampunk, part genius. New Scientist shares a step-by-step guide, complete with a parts list and a video of the compass being built. Guess what we’ll be tackling this week?

For this month’s Muse of Nerds, I quickly grabbed onto the STEM to STEAM movement (adding ‘arts’ to the technical.) Creativity is the foundation for advancement in all fields. The arts — writing, music, art, theater and dance — paired with science, technology, engineering and math, foster a relationship between both sides of the brain for maximum human innovation potential. Trying to place STEM at the top of the educational plant stifles growth.

In 1858, Friedrich Kekule published a paper that showed, visually, how atoms bond chemically. He continued to play with the design until in 1865, he put carbon as a six-sided ring (hexagon) with chains and links, which gave rise to organic chemistry. Kekule started out as an architect before switching to the new science of chemistry. The visualization of chemical bonding didn’t come out of experiments in the lab, but a daydream while riding the bus. His brain looked at chemistry with an architect’s eye.

Daniel Tammet holds the European world record for reciting pi from memory. Daniel can “sense” if a number is prime. I think it’s important to mention that Daniel has high-functioning autism because many educators tend to steer children on the Autism spectrum towards STEM fields. However, Daniel uses the arts to “see” numbers. He is a lucid writer with his book, Born on a Blue Day. The way he was able to memorize pi was by creating a visual landscape in his mind. Clearly, art and math are tied for him.

Science News had a special issue on August 14, 2010 devoted to our minds on music. It was a fascinating look at how music influences our growth emotionally and mentally. In it there was a quote from Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, “In terms of brain imaging, studies have shown listening to music lights up, or activates, more of the brain than any other stimulus we know.” That’s just listening! As Daniel Levitin, director of the music perception, cognition and expertise laboratory at McGill University in Montreal explained, “Music processing is distributed throughout the brain…and playing an instrument, in particular, is an ensemble activity. It involves paying attention, thinking ahead, remembering, coordinating movement and interpreting constant feedback to the ears, fingers and, in some cases, lips. It is one of the most complicated tasks that we have.”

How could that kind of thinking be considered extracurricula? That’s the saddest part. STEM in education is not just getting the funding for special programming, but amazing mental tasks like music aren’t even in the BASIC CURRICULUM!

This very morning I was teaching a creative writing class to some junior high students. The stories will be used to later design and program robots (based on challenges the writing students come up with). The writing students have to be creative to make their challenges cohesive with their story lines. The robotic students have to be creative in designing and programming robots. Tying the two endeavors together gives the project more weight.

Have you ever been to a science museum? Did you attend any of the fantastic theater shows? Watching a story unfold is basic human communication. Lecturing is not.

My children were taking a botany course and convinced their teacher to demonstrate their plant family identification ability using interpretive dance. Seriously. Their teacher was cool about it and let them try. They took all the information they knew about these plant families (memorizing), decided on what was the most important and distinguishable traits (critical thinking) and then came up with movements to convey the information in a clear way (innovation.) By using their full body to translate the concepts, more parts of their brain were used. Do you think they will remember the information better than if they wrote it out on a test? Can your fingers remember a song on the piano from when you were a child? Muscle memory is a powerful tool.

My husband teaches genetics and is frustrated at the lack of “creative and independent thought” the students portray. Students walk in the classroom lacking good reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. The scientists getting prizes don’t spit out what they were taught. They dream, they doodle, they hum, they dance their way to success.

I love the recent rash of physics-based games for portable devices. My seven-year-old son loves them, too. He’ll spend hours devising ways to solve the puzzles. I was lucky enough to have The Incredible Machine as a kid, but that’s about all there was at the time. Today, there are dozens of apps, websites, video games, and computer programs that require kids to think creatively to solve problems. Fantastic Contraption 2 is a particularly good one.

Like a few of the other good physics-based apps, there is rarely one right answer in Fantastic Contraption 2. In each challenge, the object is to get the pink wheel into the pink goal area through whatever means necessary. Kids (or adults, since this app is good for everyone) have to devise contraptions to get it there. They can make parts spin, move, or be influenced by magnets to achieve their goal.

The built-in puzzles are all contained in the section entitled “Campaign.” The campaign starts out with the suggestion to play through a tutorial. I highly recommend the tutorial if you’re new to this app, even if you’re an expert at other similar apps, since it gives you a clear understanding of what all the parts do. Once you’ve gone through the tutorial, you have to solve a puzzle to demonstrate that you understand all the concepts taught. There are three tutorial levels, after which you are free to do the regular puzzles.

The Level Editor.

While you’re trying to design a solution to each puzzle, the large blue square serves as your workshop. The pink wheel starts in there, and you build on and around it. You can use or connect regular rods, water rods, rotating wheels, magnets, and more. It is a bit hard to play this game on the small screen of an iPod Touch, but it doesn’t have a special iPad mode, other than zooming in. Attaching the rods to connect wheels together isn’t very intuitive, either, but you quickly get the hang of it. Once you think you have a contraption that will take the pink wheel to the pink goal area, tap Start and your contraption engages. Watch it zoom to the goal, struggle to get there, or fail miserably. Sometimes you have to try out many different designs before you get a successful solution. This teaches kids (and adults) patience, determination, and creative thinking.

Once you successfully solve a puzzle, you can save your contraption and share it online. There are also different trophies to earn on each level. For example, if you complete a level without using any rods, or by making everything fall off the screen, you’ll win those trophies. In addition, the game times how long your contraption takes to get to the goal, and how many pieces you use.

You can also create a challenge for any of the puzzles. You give the challenge a name and description, a time to beat, and a piece total to beat, if desired. You (or someone else) then has to solve the puzzle within those constraints.

There are 66 built-in levels in the included campaign. One nice feature is that you can do any of the puzzles at any time. You don’t have to complete one to unlock the next one. If you want a bigger challenge, you can spend time in the Level Editor where you can create your own puzzles from scratch.

Fantastic Contraption 2 costs $3.99 in the iTunes store. It is a well-done physics game that requires creative problem solving and perseverance. It’s fantastic for any adult, or kids five or over who love to figure things out, and will give you hours of challenging fun.

Note: I received a copy of Fantastic Contraption 2 for the purposes of this review.

This is National Engineering Week, and Thursday is “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.” Over at GeekDad, Doug Cornelius has an excellent wrap-up of engineering-related sites for you and your kids to enjoy.

All of this reminded me of the fabulous song “Gonna Be an Engineer” by folksinger Peggy Seeger (sister of Pete Seeger). It’s a reminder of the challenges women have faced over the years when they wanted to enter a technical or scientific field. Give a listen (in the nicely done animated version above), and then go tell your geeky daughter she can be whatever she wants!

Inspired by the White House’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign, the Joan Cooney Ganz Center issued this challenge: design a mobile app that engages kids while teaching them the STEM skills: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Developers were invited to enter prototypes to win the National STEM Video Game Challenge, with a prize of $50,000 towards the production of their final game.

There’s another prize that’s up to you: the People’s Choice Award, which brings the winning project $25,000. There are many great game prototypes entered, featuring a huge array of gameplay and skills. Among the entrants you’ll find Sci-Heroes Save the Day, a prototype I created with my friend, the awesome artist Tim Goldman.

Sci-Heroes Save the Day will be the first in a series of apps that teach science using science fiction. The science games will be embedded in a comic book story, and completing the game will be essential to furthering the story. The evil Dr. Spectacle is using her super-charged glasses to wreak havoc on the city? Maybe a smoke screen will stop her. To the lab! Here’s a video of the prototype, and you can try it for yourself on our website.

I hope to make this game a reality with lots of great activities, animation, and sound design, so help a GeekMom out with a vote, won’t you? And while you’re there, send some love to the other worthy entrants. Bringing any and all quality STEM games to market is a good thing.

Kids wrestled Lego bricks from their teammates, argued, sighed, rolled their eyes, and shouted down each other’s ideas. Our team-building session was off to a disastrous start. As I let the dust settle from the kids’ first attempt to solve a simple problem with a timer running, the most cheerful comment I could make was a perky, “Well, we’ve got a lot of work to do!”

My son’s team will be joining other kids around the country this coming weekend for the FIRST Lego League competition. Teams build NXT robots designed to run missions on a playboard with obstacles and tasks built from Lego bricks. This year’s theme is the human body. The missions involve tasks of varied complexity and point value in which their robot must solve medical themed problems.

Right now my son is planning the heart mission. The heart on the playboard is shaped like a valentine heart, and he needs the robot to transport a cardiac patch and a pacemaker. The patch has to be placed entirely within the heart. As for the pacemaker, it has a black tube piece protruding from a larger grey piece. Only the black tube can be inside the heart. If any portion of the grey part of the pacemaker enters the heart he’ll lose points.

The robot is ready to run its first mission - a quick grab of a patent before the other team can get to it.

This is all in the context of a two and a half minute timed competition in which the robot will also manipulate Lego pieces to release a syringe, put a cast on a bone, put a marrow transplant inside a bone, make the leg kick a ball, get a medicine dispenser to collect only blue and white pieces, grab a patent, and more. The robots have to be fast and accurate. Kids have to make quick switches and modifications while the timer races, taking penalty points for touching the robot in the hopes that it’s worth it to score a big mission run.

But what I like the best about the FIRST competition is that it’s about a lot more than the robot. The scoring includes teamwork, an emphasis on kids doing the work, the ability to take on different roles and contribute to the process, and a research project. The project requires the team to identify a problem specific to the year’s theme, suggest an innovative solution, share their work with the world, and make a tightly timed presentation to the judges.

I asked my son to describe his team’s project. “The problem is when diabetics enter dangerously low blood sugars, um, and our solution is through nanotechnology a phone application could monitor your blood sugar levels and when you are entering too low would call loved ones and alert paramedics. We designed a website.”

The nanotechnology aspect is far-fetched and their supporting research is shaky in places. But wow, what an idea! The team was inspired by one of their coaches who has Type I diabetes and agrees that their idea could be a serious contribution if it could be developed into a working application.

So what have they learned, leading up to next weekend’s regional competition? Engineering, programming, robotics, research skills, website building, problem-solving, and teamwork.

Hey – do NOT throw that at your teammate!

Okay, teambuilding is a work in progress. It’s all a work in progress. The robot routinely misses the placement of the marrow transplant, the animation of the nanotechnology solution won’t embed in the website, and the presentation for the judges is only barely sketched out. But it really is all about the process. The product is just a nifty bonus.

GeekMom is thrilled to bring our readers another column by Kari Byron, the female face on the hit Discovery Channel show MythBusters and host of the Science Channel’s new Head Rush. Kari sends us regular updates on life as a MythBuster Mom.

Science is hot right now. Everywhere I travel parents are in a panic to get their kids interested in science. I guess one day, America woke up and realized our pipeline of home-grown engineers, scientists, and inventors was drying up.

Let’s face it: subjects like science and math have an unfortunate reputation for being boring and dry and, dare I say, even “nerdy.” Honestly, that is how I felt when I was 12. Science was so often taught as a list of facts to memorize: “List the components of a cell,” “What does H2O stand for?” “Who is the father of the theory of relativity?” Snore. I didn’t understand why science couldn’t be more like art class. So I can understand where kids are coming from today.

Another huge roadblock for students is the lack of role models in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (what the President calls the STEM initiative) in our media-driven world of glamour, fame, and money. Close your eyes and picture a scientist. Do you see an awkward nerdy man with bad posture, glasses and a lab coat? Who wants to be him when you are inundated with exciting visions of gorgeous movie stars and rich athletes?

The good news is that if you are asking that question it probably means you are half way there. Being involved is an amazing start. A parent is the most important role model, regardless of what your eye-rolling tween says.

I like to teach science to kids like I teach art. Get their hands dirty. Engage their natural curiosity. Drop Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke and let it explode all over the backyard. Snap! That’s chemistry. Show them science isn’t just answers on an exam, but the world all around you. Take a nature walk with a camera. Bring home pictures of animals and find out what they eat, when they sleep. Snap! That’s biology. I also like to call it hiding the broccoli in the cheese sauce. Making science more hands-on creates a base of scientific literacy as well as quality time bonding. Your kids will be learning in spite of themselves. That look of wonder and discovery you see in their faces will become addictive -– for both of you.

That’s how MythBusters became a juggernaut of science engagement for kids. We weren’t trying to teach science, we were just having fun while using science as a tool. They see us having fun and join us on the journey.

There you have it, sage advice from a totally unqualified former art major who now loves science and uses it every day.